Blood+ Fan Fiction ❯ Innocent boy, meet the pure rose ❯ Dalton Minerva ( Chapter 1 )

It was September 3rd, 2009.

 

The summer, though not officially over, had left New York City. Cold wind blew through the city streets, forcing people to quickly adapt to the uncommon temperature this time of year.

 

Of course, the higher you were, the more the wind could get to you. This fact was made obvious as a cold breeze blew through the room of Dalton Minerva, the son of the co-owners of Minerva Inc.

 

Minerva Inc. was many things, but to be direct about it Minerva was a monopoly. It encompassed many different businesses, from antiques and food, to metalworking and electronics, Minerva, more often than not, made a profit when products were bought.

 

Of course, Minerva didn't make all of its own products, quite the contrary; the majority of their income came from companies that had immensely popular items which Minerva bought with its huge sum of money.

 

Once it owned said company the money spent to purchase it was refreshed and overflowed, in turn allowing it to purchase more companies.

 

Cycles are some of the most powerful things in the world, and the co-owners of Minerva, Walter & Amelia Minerva knew this well.

 

Because of their success they went from living in apartments in the inner city to owning a huge mansion on a landscaped hill in Manhattan.

 

The property, its grass lush yet constantly maintained, was over a hundred acres in circumference and had a solidly-built, polished, steel fence that stood ten feet high all around the edge of the expansive amount of land.

 

It had its own pond, with various fish swimming in its crystal clear waters and a small wooden dock that had a single rowboat in which to float on across the water.

 

A forest lie there too, and the thick, luscious leaves on the oak trees that had been planted years ago and now stood proud and tall over the property were wonderful at calming down one's soul.

 

The mansion was a Victorian one, keeping with the old styles, and while it was made of high-quality materials by expert architects there was an old elevator with a drop-down gate and a handle that controlled the destination floor, as well as circular staircases.

 

Dalton's room was on the third floor, the same as his parents', and the breeze, unencumbered by the openness of the property, blew in through his open window unmolested.

 

This was unfortunate as he was standing in front of his dresser, looking through the maple drawers that housed the clothing within.

 

Due to his not wearing anything but his underwear and socks, it made him jump as the breeze caressed his back and made him shiver.

 

The boy quickly sprang away from his dresser and headed for the window, but soon learned that traveling across a finished hardwood floor in your nice, smooth socks at a quick pace is not something to do when you don't have a good sense of balance.

 

His feet slid backwards as his body dipped forward, carrying the befuddled boy down to the floor in a noisy landing.

 

“Ow.”

 

Dalton rubbed his chin and silently thanked it for absorbing the impact, but it hurt a lot so he guessed a thank you wasn't enough.

 

He was a delicate boy. It wasn't that he had any physical disabilities to made him so, he just simply didn't have strong constitution, or for that matter, an endurance for pain.

 

Due to his recklessness throughout his childhood the child was known for having accidents involving everything from running in to dressers to cutting himself on cardboard.

 

The latter his parents didn't even know was possible.

 

An impatient knock came from his door and he gave it an anxious gaze as he feared the words that would come through it.

 

“Dalton! Stop crashing around, please, we need to get going soon!” His mother scolded him.

 

“Sorry mother!” He apologized.

 

The boy pushed himself up and slipped, falling to the floor again.

 

He tried again and managed to stand this time.

 

“I've got to be careful.” He reminded himself.

 

Dalton quickly tip-toed over to his window and through the merciless storm of the cold wind before grabbing both windows and deftly shutting them.

 

He turned away to go get changed but had to close the windows again because he forgot to lock them together.

“Ah, there you go!”

 

He successfully closed and locked the windows before walking back slowly to his dresser.

 

“I think I'll wear… this.” He chose.

 

His hands pulled out a white, button-down ironed shirt with two blue stripes on the collar that wrung around it.

 

The boy put on the shirt delicately, not wanting to put any wrinkles in it lest his mother become upset with him.

 

Fingers struggled to put the buttons through the tight holes on the other side of the shirt and he decided to look around his room for a moment.

 

The walls were painted a warm brown, with a crème ceiling and light hardwood floor.

 

Bare were the walls but for the three sets of windows that were evenly distributed across one wall, with his single-sized bed resting in the left corner of it.

 

His parents had insisted on getting him a larger one but he had told them that he was fine with this. He was only twelve after all and didn't need to have a bed so big that he would have to crawl across the bed to reach his pillows.

 

The sheets of the bed were pure white and he had tightly made the bed this morning, being sure to tuck everything in just the right way like his parents had taught him.

 

His dresser was in the opposite, adjacent corner of the room and had a few Star Wars action figures stood up on top of it usually, except for now, since the vibrations of the opening and closing of the drawers had sent them from their respective feet and long tails used for balance.

 

There were a few neatly packed board-games beneath his bed and the door to his room was in the adjacent corner but other than that there wasn't much more to his room.

 

You would expect the son of billionaires to have a little bit more to his room than a tiny bed and a box of Monopoly under his bed, wouldn't you?

 

Dalton had to get refocused on his shirt-buttoning, however, as he hadn't made any progress at all.

 

“Come on you darn little thing.”

 

He cursed this before he finally managed to get a button through the bottom hole.

 

Oh wait, that wasn't the bottom button.

 

The boy had just managed to unbutton the failed attempt when his mother opened the door and entered his room.

 

“Dalton! Come on now dear!” She spoke, sounding disappointed as she walked over to him.

 

“We have to be at the opera house at seven and you aren't even dressed?”

 

He lowered his head and slouched with his shoulders in shame.

 

“I'm sorry, mother.”

 

With a sigh her frustration seemed to dissipate.

 

“It's alright. Here, let me help you.”

 

She knelt down and her hands grabbed the opposite sides of his shirt and within a second-and-a-half had buttoned the bottom correctly.

 

His mother was a very intelligent and beautiful woman.

 

She had gone to college alongside his father and had even graded higher than him occasionally before they both graduated with the highest honors imaginable.

 

Throughout her college years she was approached countless times by guys who wanted to date her.

 

Dalton blushed.

 

It embarrassed him to think about anything like that.

 

Even when his parents kissed he had to cover his eyes and try not to look embarrassed.

 

His mother's brown hair was tied back with a black velvet band and she wore an expensive dress even costlier than her normal ones.

 

The boy's hair was inherited from his father; black, and his skin was somewhat pale for a boy who got out more than enough.

 

But his bright blue eyes sparkled, honoring his mother's.

 

She finished buttoning up his shirt and stood up, reaching over him into the top dresser drawer and pulling out a pair of dress pants, handing them to him.

 

“Come out as soon as you can, alright dear?”

 

She asked him this as he gripped the pants as if his pride depended on not failing to drop them.

 

“I'll be there real soon.” He vowed with a smile.

 

Amelia smiled back at him and nodded before walking back to his doorway and leaving the room, closing the door behind her quietly.

 

Dalton looked down at the pants for a moment before nodding and reaching down to his toes.

 

He brought his feet up one by one and put them in the deposits of fabric before tugging the pants up his legs.

 

His feet held down the bottom of the pant legs and he almost fell on his face trying to keep his balance as he attempted to pull the pants up, but this time he maintained control and hopped up into the air.

 

The pants slid up all the way and he landed a second before he zippered them up and then put the larger button through the larger hole.

 

Putting the belt on was much easier and he slid the brown leather through the tight black loops of his dress pants before securely fastening it again once it was snugly around his waist.

 

Dalton once again reached into the drawers of his dresser, but this time he pulled out a black bow-tie and put it on.

 

He ducked down and pulled out a pair of dress shoes from beneath his dresser and slipped on the shiny footwear.

 

The boy took a step forward but swiftly remembered that he hadn't tied his shoes.

 

His fearful gaze drew down to look at the shoes and sure enough there was a shoestring positioned beneath the sole of one of his shoes ready to trip him up.

 

“Not this time, mister.”

 

Dalton bent down and tied his shoes, and then walked to his door and opened it.

 

The third floor was strictly for their bedrooms, guestrooms, personal bathrooms, and closets. Because of that it wasn't very big compared to the other two floors; the second one was intended for meetings and the first one was where the kitchen, living room, family room, indoor pool and games room were.

 

Three rooms were on each side of the hall and two of those rooms were his parents' and his respectively, while the others were for guests and occasionally business partners.

 

He walked out into the hall and closed the door behind him before turning left and walking towards the elevator.

 

His mother waited in front of the elevator and gestured for him to move quicker, to which Dalton eagerly obliged and ran to her.

 

Amelia stepped in front of him, anticipating the stumble that he would face as he quickly tried to slow down and caught him.

 

“Dalton, how many times do you have to stumble and fall to learn to slow down when you run?”

 

He frowned and looked away, embarrassed.

 

“I'm sorry.”

 

His mother patted his head as she helped him stand and they entered the elevator together.

 

“Make sure to stay back.”

 

She told him this before reaching up for the gate.

 

Dalton made sure to do so and she pulled down the gate until it hit the floor of the elevator with a clank.

 

“Can I use the lever, mother?”

 

His respectful request was met with a nod and a word of approval.

 

He smiled and pulled the handle along the semi-circle until it was on “1”.

 

The elevator began to move down from the floor and they stood there patiently waiting to arrive at their desired location.

 

“Mother, what are we going to see at the opera house?”

 

“A young girl is going to be singing with a reputable orchestra. Though she is relatively unknown her singing skill has apparently earned her a place there.”

 

He looked up at the ceiling and thought about what she might sound like.

 

The boy had been to operas, symphonies and other performances before, yet he couldn't imagine what her voice would be.

 

“Is she my age?”

 

His mother looked at him when he asked that question.

 

“No, she is a few years older, I believe. Why do you ask?”

 

He stopped trying to imagine her voice in his head and smiled at his mother.

 

“I like the way younger girls sound. Their voices are a lot more beautiful to me.”

 

“Are you sure you aren't just trying to get a date?”

 

Amelia asked the question with a bit of humor in her voice as she predicted the incoming blushing of her inexperienced son.

 

“Motherrrrr!”

 

He pleaded for her to not mention it, and not an ounce of anger tinged his tone; desperation lie there instead.

 

The woman chuckled as they arrived at the bottom floor and she pulled the gate up.

 

Both of them walked out of the elevator and onto the shiny tiled floor where his father waited.

 

He noticed the boy's blush and looked at Amelia.

 

“Amelia, have you been embarrassing the boy again?”

 

“He asked how old the young lady was.”

 

The woman's question was met with a raise of Walter's eyebrows as they both looked down at him and he looked away in embarrassment.

 

Both of his parents chuckled at him before walking across the wide front room towards the expensive double-door exit.

 

The floor was a light yellowish tan that resembled manila in color, while the doors were dark wood with stained glass window in the middle that allowed them to see the car outside, even in the fading daylight.

 

“One of these days you will be going out on a date.”

 

His father's reminder only served to increase his anxiousness and embarrassment as his parents opened the double doors so that the three could walk out of the house and approach his father's expensive car.

 

Dalton focused on the vehicle, noting that it was dark blue, but didn't know much else about it accept that it looked nice and looked like it had cost a lot of money.

 

Instead he focused on their driveway, which was shaped like a “U” with the middle portion being right in front of the mansion.

 

Amelia opened his rear door for him; she obviously remembered the time he'd opened it himself and hit his nose with the edge of the door.

 

He smiled at her thoughtfulness and got into the leather seat within.

 

Dalton made sure to buckle his seatbelt before she closed the door and both of his parents got into the car as well.

 

It always smelled clean in here and Dalton spent a few seconds trying to pinpoint the car freshener that was used to make it smell so, as his parents buckled their seatbelts and his father turned the car on.

 

“What I'm worried most about is that a strong-willed girl might try to take advantage of my sweet little boy.”

 

“Motherrrrrrr!”

 

His parents chuckled again as his father drove down the driveway.